October 31, 2007

When party members pass damaging documents to “the enemy”, you can be sure there is something seriously wrong in the British National Party.

Over the past two months Searchlight has been inundated with information from inside the BNP which paints a very different picture from the one proffered by the party leadership. Instead of the public image of remorseless advance, the BNP is beset with internal problems, poor morale and a leadership that is becoming increasingly detached from many of the party’s key organisers.

What marks this present crisis out compared to previous internal disputes are the people who are becoming alienated from the BNP leader. We are no longer talking about the old Tyndallites – supporters of Nick Griffin’s rival and former BNP leader John Tyndall – whom Griffin happily dismisses as “vermin”, but about some of the more able organisers and party staff who have until recently been close to the party leader.

This group includes Sadie Graham, Chris Beverley, Ian Dawson and Steve Blake. The latest problems come on top of the departure of several other leading BNP officers and local organisers, including Scott McLean, Jonathan Bowden and Stuart Russell.

There is a variety of reasons for the growing frictions inside the BNP, though most are the product of poor morale and a sense of drift. Despite its public bravado, the BNP has not been having a good time of late. The 2006 election results certainly did not live up to expectations, recruitment continues to be like trying to fill a bath with the plug out, with too few members renewing, and the party has clear financial problems.

Three distinct groups seem to have emerged at the heart of the BNP. Firstly there are the “über-nationalists”, many of whom have not actually joined the BNP but currently have the ear of Nick Griffin.

Then there is the brat pack, made up of Mark Collett, head of publicity, party treasurer John Walker, his deputy David Hannam, head of security Martin Reynolds and Bradford councillor Paul Cromie. They have formed a laddish sect within the party but many others consider them not particularly able.

Finally, there are the party apparatchiks, or “Young Turks”, the more able organisers who have emerged in prominent positions and formed a tight bond over the past two years. They include Graham, Beverley, Dawson, Blake and Kenny Smith. They are the super-activists who are driving the party forward on the ground.

It is they who appear to have become most disillusioned with the direction of the party and the political judgement of Griffin himself. While they are at present staying loyal to the party some of them are prioritising local activity over national work.In late September Dawson wrote a long letter to Griffin resigning from his post as head of group support. He had become disillusioned with the way the party was being run, and in particular the strong but highly damaging influence of Collett, Walker and Hannam.

“I have to work on a daily basis with Treasury, specifically Dave Hannam,” he explained. “Add this to the fact that Hannam, Walker and Collett have their own little clique which will stop at nothing to undermine, antagonise and mock decent nationalists, then something has to give.”

Dawson directs particular venom at Hannam, of whom he has nothing positive to say. He voices his frustration that his repeated criticisms of Hannam have fallen on deaf ears. He dismisses the notion that the party accounts were late (again) because of overwork and even questions the legitimacy of the party finances. He claims that the local bank balances are often wrong and rarely up to date, standing orders are processed very late, cheques are not cashed and new party units have to wait “an infuriatingly long time” for treasury packs.

“I don’t know what more I have to do or say to get through the point that Dave is completely incompetent,” he adds. “I would have replaced him ages ago, in a diplomatic way of course, yet as his face fits he is still on board, despite constant lies and incompetence. Just how bad do people have to be to do their job, and how many lies do they have to tell to cover it up, before they are sacked?”

Collett also comes in for intense criticism. “Mark Collett is without doubt the most deceitful, devious, arrogant, spiteful, greedy moron that I have ever come across. He is not a nationalist, plain and simple. Playing gangster rap music while hurling personal insults at hard working nationalists is about as low as it gets. What on earth is he doing in the Party? Yet not just that, what on earth is he doing as a national officer?”

Dawson is not alone in his disenchantment with the direction of the party and open hatred towards Collett and his group. Beverley recently resigned from the Advisory Council and his position running Excalibur, the party’s merchandising operation, to concentrate on his job as a local councillor.

Graham, the BNP’s group development officer, received a disciplinary letter from Griffin complaining that she was meddling in affairs outside her role. Apparently he backed down, admitting that he had not read an email from her. When word leaked out of Graham’s unhappiness, Griffin was forced onto the defensive, declaring on the BNP website on 3 October that she remains “firmly in place”.

Collett and Walker also appear to have acted as a catalyst for the resignation of Stuart Russell as the party’s press officer and the expulsion of the party’s recent Sedgefield by-election candidate Andrew Spence. Russell’s wife, Wendy, had been on the receiving end of a torrent of abuse and the final straw was when Arthur Kemp, Griffin’s new ideological enforcer, allegedly told him he was a useless fat old f***er who should just go away.

And although McLean cited the exigencies of business and family life when he resigned as the BNP’s deputy chairman, some say the real reason is that Griffin prevented him, in his capacity as head of the party’s disciplinary committee, from dealing with Collett.

So far it appears that Griffin is refusing to act against the Collett axis. Why, we don’t know, but Dawson’s claim that Collett has threatened to turn Queen’s evidence against Griffin if he is ditched is illuminating.

There is also increasing resentment from many establishment organisers towards the growing influence of the über-nationalists, the new kids on the block who have emerged as Griffin’s inner circle. They are increasingly influencing the direction of the party despite many of them being outside the party.

There is growing frustration that Griffin and his close entourage are ignoring party structures. The failure to hold regular meetings of the Advisory Council, supposedly the leadership body of the BNP, is further evidence that Griffin is building his own separate operation.

Many of the “Young Turks” have a longstanding dislike of Lee Barnes, particularly Blake. It recently flared up again on the BNP forum, the internal discussion board for BNP members. Replying to a posting on Barnes’s blog last month, which continued a highly abusive and personal attack on Sharon Ebanks, the party’s former Birmingham organiser who left to form the New Nationalist Party which folded last month, Blake wrote: “What purpose does the dissemination of this unattributed and unsubstantiated gossip serve?“This is totally unfounded nonsense and just the kind of rubbish our mortal enemies want us to distribute in order to bring about doubts, suspicions and weaken morale.”

If the BNP were a normal political party, there would have been universal outrage at one of the leader’s inner circle writing such words and Griffin would have been forced to dump him. But the BNP is not, so Griffin continues to heap praise on Barnes’s warped blog.

The mistrust appears to be mutual. The Collett gang has little time for the “Young Turks” and does what it can to undermine them and blame them for its own shortcomings. Collett and his clique are also becoming increasingly outspoken about what they perceive is favouritism from the Graham faction to some branches and councillors over people close to Collett.

Likewise, the über-nationalists, who appear to enjoy acting as “advisers” rather than doing any real work on the ground, seem to have little time for many of the party’s organisers. The dismissive way in which they acted towards Russell is symptomatic of their overall approach.

Cass: pushed or jumped?

Over the summer, Nick Cass either stepped down or was sacked as party manager. According to some reports he was sacked minutes before an Advisory Council meeting in Wales after a string of blunders for which he was blamed.

Cass posted a denial of this version of events on various rightwing websites, insisting that he chose to resign and was offered another job in the party but declined, in favour of spending more time with his family. It is not clear whether this is the truth or Cass simply remaining loyal to Griffin, with whom he has been closely associated for many years. Dawson’s resignation letter certainly supports the former account. Criticising the party’s management style, Dawson comments: “Not telling people two minutes before a meeting that they have been replaced, e.g. the recent case involving Nick Cass”.

Either way, the result is that Cass is no longer on the party books and is concentrating on his local branch. Dawson and Beverley have followed suit, with Beverley not only giving up Excalibur but also stepping down from the Advisory Council.

Avoiding the issues

Griffin is trying to rectify some of the internal problems. He has established a three-person Central Management Team of “volunteer long-standing party activists” to help run the party. Tony Brewer, Michaela Mackenzie and Mark Clutterbuck will supposedly bring “decades of business management experience” to handling “internal staff management affairs”.

But while the intention may be commendable, Mackenzie is yet another person at the centre of the party’s internal disputes.

Griffin’s response to the current disquiet is true to form. He is letting his supporters make highly personal and abusive attacks on individuals, or at least not reining them in. Griffin could have dealt quickly and firmly with the supporter who virtually accused the BNP’s former education officer, Jonathan Bowden, of being a paedophile, but he did not. He could have told his attack dogs to stop abusing Stuart and Wendy Russell, but he did not.

Rather, he has joined in. In the immediate aftermath of his victory in the party leadership election in July he dismissed those who backed the rival candidate as “vermin”. Again, if Griffin had been leading a normal political party he would have been forced to resign or at least apologise publicly for such an outburst.

But this is history repeating itself. During the 1980s Griffin played a major factional role in the destruction of the National Front. He was behind many of the personal and political attacks on his group’s internal rivals and this contributed to the party’s virtual collapse.

The manner in which Solidarity, the BNP’s trade union front, is run, and the way Griffin is silencing through expulsion anyone who criticises his line, show that he has learnt nothing from the past. Passing the blame and refusing to accept responsibility for his own failures is another of Griffin’s traits.

It is also clear that at the moment Griffin does not want to, or feels he cannot, move against Collett et al. Until he faces up to the Collett problem there is little chance of an end to the increasingly damaging disputes in the BNP.

Dawson spells out the point in his resignation letter. “The party is in danger of fragmenting. … There are so many good people in the party that are being sidelined and have not been listened to. People are sick and tired of seeing the odious clique of Hannam, Walker and specifically Collett get away with things time and again.”

Dawson might have decided to resign of his own accord but in his letter he was articulating the views of the “Young Turks”.

What Griffin has done, and again this is true to form, is to shout conspiracy. Nothing pleases the BNP activist more than to believe that the political establishment is so scared of its potential that it will stop at nothing to undermine the advance of the BNP. In recent years we have heard claims that the UK Independence Party was established just to provide a respectable but ineffective home for British nationalists, that Labour opted for all-postal elections in 2004 in the north of England just to prevent the BNP from winning more council seats and that any internal criticism of Griffin, including Chris Jackson’s challenge to his leadership, is all part of a cunning plot by the security services to derail the BNP juggernaut.

Indeed, Griffin devoted four pages in a recent issue of Identity, the BNP’s magazine, to claim that the internal rumblings were simply another frantic state plot. He even claims that the writer of this article is a well-known nazi, although this is slightly undermined by his attack dogs on the internet who have insisted that Nick Lowles does not exist but is in fact Gerry Gable!

Crisis, what crisis?

Do the BNP’s internal wranglings really matter? Well actually yes. Despite what Griffin and his apologists claim, the BNP is in crisis. While it is true that the BNP is more popular than any previous British fascist organisation, in many areas its support has begun to plateau or fall. This trend began in the 2004 local elections but gathered momentum this May.

What is worse for the BNP is that many of the areas where its fortunes are ebbing, for the moment at least, are in their traditional heartlands: Oldham, Bradford, Kirklees, Calderdale, Sandwell and Dudley to name but a few. The BNP’s share of the vote was considerably lower this May compared to previous elections, especially in its key target wards.

This is having a knock-on effect on BNP branches. Oldham and Blackburn have virtually collapsed. Bradford and Burnley have suffered huge splits and the loss of two councillors in Sandwell has rocked and perhaps terminally damaged local fortunes. The BNP may be emerging in new areas, such as the East Midlands, and remains strong in others, such as Stoke-on-Trent, outer east London and Thurrock, but it is unlikely to win seats elsewhere.

The internal problems within the BNP stem partly from poor leadership but also from declining morale. A run of good election results and a new wave of recruitment could quickly turn the party’s fortunes around. Anti-fascists must step up work ahead of next year’s local elections to ensure that the ructions within the party continue.

On their way out

Several key people have left the BNP or resigned from their positions over the past three months.

Scott McLean (Deputy Chairman)Left to concentrate on his business, but had become increasingly disillusioned with the party.

Jonathan Bowden (Educational Officer)Resigned after a Griffin supporter publicly accused him of being a paedophile.

Nick Cass (Party Manager)Resigned but was blamed for some of the internal problems in the party.

Ian Dawson (Head of Group Support)Resigned in exasperation after Griffin’s failure to deal with Mark Collett and Dave Hannam.

Ian Leadbitter (Sunderland organiser)Resigned after falling out with other BNP members.

Walter Hamilton (Glasgow organiser)Resigned to concentrate on business commitments.

Simon Smith (Black Country organiser)Left the BNP over financial mismanagement.

Clive Potter (President of Solidarity)Expelled from BNP after refusing to toe the Griffin line in Solidarity.

Personality clashes

A growing number of personality clashes are emerging in the BNP which threaten the party’s effectiveness.

David Shapcott v Sharon Wilkinson (Burnley)Many people in Burnley BNP have little time for “Shoulders” Shapcott, the local organiser. Sharon Wilkinson is furious that Shapcott grabbed the glory over their High Court battle to win a recount after disputing the result of last May’s election in Rosegrove with Lowerhouse ward after he contributed nothing to the action.

Paul Cromie v James Lewthwaite (Bradford)Bradford BNP is increasingly demoralised after it failed to build on its 2004 momentum. A major split has emerged between local chairman Paul Cromie and former councillor James Lewthwaite, to the point that Cromie is contemplating disciplining his former colleague for hampering the party’s recent election campaign.

Michaela Mackenzie v Robert Baggs (South West region)Baggs has become increasingly frustrated at the growing prominence of Bristol-based Mackenzie and now he suspects her of being a Searchlight informer. Relations between the two have been bad for several years, after Baggs spurned her advances.

Mark Collett v Chris Beverley (Leeds)The two former university colleagues have increasingly gone their separate ways in recent times. It is claimed that Collett deliberately failed to promote Excalibur in Identity, when Beverley ran the BNP’s merchandising operation. For his part, Beverley is dismissive of Collett’s abilities.

This article is the complete BNP in Crisis article from Stop the BNP and can be downloaded from here.

Now you know why Griffin wants to destroy the England First Party andwhy he accused Rushton of being Lowles.Taken from the BNP forum"Myfirst reaction to this article was 'oh my gawd' this will cause a bitof a kerfuffle.But we must recognise the separate nationalist instinctsin our countries. There is a void waiting to be filled in England,which Dave Hannam (correctly in my view) predicts WILL be taken bysomeone, to the detriment of the BNP. In my simplistic world I cant seeanything wrong in celebrating and promoting our separate identities butcoming together under the British banner.BNP Scotland, BNP Wales, BNPUlster, BNP England - whats wrong with that?""i have already posted onthis and am disappointed. the problem is this was not a minor letter ina paper or someones comments on this forum, it was a major issue inIdentity with front page heading. i agree with Aberdeen, i wouldnt liketo sell it north of the border but that now gives ammo to our enemies,how easy to now photocopy 1,000s of copies of the article and spreadthem round scottish cities with "the article Scottish BNP didnt wantyou to see!" on it. the matter should have been handled better and morediplomatically with a balanced article about Scottish/Welshetc."(Aberdeen Organiser)#11 27-10-2007, 01:14 PM Aberdeen BNPOrganiser Join Date: Oct 2007Posts: 6 I was utterly disgusted to readthe article on English Nationalism In this month’s identity. Ratherthan just covering the need and fairness of an English parliament tomirror that of Wales Scotland and N Ireland, the article descended intoa dirge of anti Scottish bile of which I have never thought I wouldhave read in what's supposed to be a pro-British publication.Statementslike "Scottish people will never vote BNP in any significant numbers"and "The BNP are going to have to make a shift towards EnglishNationalism, are going to divide our membership and go against thewhole ethos of what the BNP is supposed to represent.Perhaps Mr Hannamis a covert Islamic as his divide and conquer strategy, would make hima lead jihadist. Does he really want to bin Scotland, Wales, and NIreland to pursue a purely English Nationalist Agenda?He fails tomention that we raise all our own money for elections, and that ourvotes rise with every election. He should perhaps look at howcomparable the BNP vote is in Scotland is with early BNP days, I thinkhe will find the rise in support up here very encouraging. I mustfinish my rant by saying that this must rank as one of the mostdamaging articles ever to be published by the BNP. The BNP should bestating and loudly that “If you want Scotland, England, Wales, and NIreland to remain the countries we know and love the BNP is the onlychoice". Not Hamman he wants to divide us and concentrate onEngland.Perhaps if he had the guts to serve in the military he mayunderstand where the feeling of British pride comes from, and would beless dismissive of our "Little countries".The article was so bad that Ican not hand out any copies of Identity this month up in Scotland, andI was going to increase our order, I don’t think I will be doing thisnow if more drivel like this is to become the norm. I look forward todebating with Hannam at the national conference, as I am sure our Welshand N Irish colleagues will, about the virtues of not writing completeand utter crap.Keep this man away from a typewriter for the sake oftrue Nationalism and for the sake of Britain. (Kenny Smith=BNP Admin)#827-10-2007, 10:16 AM Point Battery BNP Member Join Date: Jul2005Location: Falkirk, ScotlandPosts: 127 The main thing about thearticle that bothers me it is supposed to be about promoting EnglishNationalism or an English Parliament similar to Holyrood, whichincidentally, I spoke in favour of at the last Annual Conference whileat the same time using an article that should the majority of Scotswhile supporting devolution still favoured the Union.David obviouslyhas a short memory and didn't bother to check the facts about suchpolls or even the voting patterns in Scotland either. Less than 34% ofthe Scots electorate voted for pro-independence parties. Even the ICMpoll table included in the article contradicted his claims.The supposedpromotion of the BNP's very sensible policy for establishing an EnglishParliament as part of our local people first ethos - which says we wantpower removed from the EU, devolved from Westminster to nationalparliaments and on down to local authority level - was lost in adiatribe against Scotland - Wales and Ulster were largely ignored -that basically told Scottish BNP members and activists to give up as weare wasting our time.If David had examined the facts or even questionedsome Scottish officials he'd have found a very different reality. Ihave posted a thread elsewhere about the Jerusalem anthem that alsotouches on this whole English/British theme. It is a theme the partmust address and quickly in my view, before elements with the partyencourage dedicated patriots outside England to reject the BNP'sbecause of their not just anglo-centric attitudes, but little Englanderanti-Scottish attitudes.In Falkirk we will pay for our Identities butlike Aberdeen we won't be selling them on, because we don't want todiscourage people from joining what we believe is the only true Britishparty in the UK.(Kevin Scott=Civil Liberty)#9 27-10-2007, 10:58 AM JackLondon BNP Member Join Date: Jul 2005Posts: 451 I thought the articlefair and sensible, nor did I detect any anti-Scottish feeling in it.Itwas quite simply a discussion of an important issue that faces theparty as the calls for an independent Scotland grow louder and anequivalent feeling in England begins to manifest itself.Fortunately,for now, the English Democrats are hopeless. Most of them are Tories,while the party is a one-trick pony with, currently, no resonanceamongst the voting public. However, that could change next year and wewill see if the media (and the far-left) get behind their LondonMayoral candidate, Gary Bushell, in order to blunt the BNP challenge inLondon. If it works, then expect the same in the Euro elections in2009.We must take strategic decisions now to prevent that fromhappening and that is what Dave's article broached in an intelligentlyargued and sensible narrative.I watched Alex Salmond on Newsnight lastnight and thought he made a very credible point that Scotland, since itnow has a parliament and legislative executive, should be responsiblefor raising and spending its money. The implication is that England, etal, should do the same. It is a simplistic notion I will concede, butit is increasingly popular North of the border and will grow in appealas the latest round of government spending cuts (announced from London)begin to bite across the country.Dave also discussed the idea thatEnglish nationalism is an ethnic and, inherently, a racial idea. Youmay have noticed that our masters have been pushing the ideathat 'britishness' is an inclusive and diverse label that can beattached to all who want to come and live here. They know thatincreasing immigration is beginning to jar in many parts of the countryand so have to look for ways to assauage this growing sense of divisionand they think this is one way to do it. Unfortunately (for them), theywill have a problem doing the same with 'englishness' and they knowit!It is up to the BNP to exploit that (since the English Democrats areinherently incapable of doing that because of their PC leadership) andit is up to our Scottish and Welsh comrades to do the samewith 'scottishness' and 'welshness'. I will leave the Irish out of theequation for the purpose of this discussion, because of the religioussectarian problems, but all genuine Irish nationalists are on ourwavelength as far as this issue is considered, despite what the marxistleadership of Sinn Fein/IRA (and the multi-culti fools of the DUP)currently say.Nevertheless, the word 'British' in our party title is anelectoral asset. On the doorstep in the North East, I have come acrossloads of Scots, Welsh and Irish, who support our message, but wouldbaulk at an explicit 'English' line. This might explain why the EnglishDemocrats flop in the various by-elections they contest. Many Englishalso realise the close relationship in terms of family and history thatmany of them have with with the components parts of Great Britain. Theword 'British' is a boon for the BNP, no doubt.However, we should notblind ourseleves to the dynamic that is going on here around the issueof devolution and the growing sense of identity politics in thecomponent nations of this country and move to exploit the issue whenthe time comes. I concede it will be harder to do this in Scotland andWales, because of the presence of the SNP and Plaid, but thoseconsiderations should not prevent us from forging ahead in England withour brand of English nationalism, before the media get behind someoneelse and create an 'inclusive' one of their own.Failure to do so, asDave recognises in his article, will make our job so much harder andcould, ultimately, lead to our eclipse as the premier nationalist partyin these islands.(Ulster Organiser)#12 27-10-2007, 04:22 PM conligcityBNP Organiser Join Date: Jun 2005Posts: 133 I have to say that theEnglish should have their independence. The sooner the better. If i'mnot mistaken our Party already advocates this. Each of the BritishCountries that make up the UK should have self governance devolved.This doesn't mean that we become four separate, individualcountries.What annoys those of us who are not English, is the way someEnglish commentator's word the issue. It seem's to be suggested thatthe Scottish,Welsh and Northern Irish don't pay any tax and we are keptby the English. I heard the ex editor of the Sun newspaper (cantremember his name) on Radio Ulster last week, claiming that the SouthEast of England produced the most of the UK's wealth and he was annoyedbecause, this wealth went to fund the rest of England and the UK. Heargued that the money should go back into the South East of Englandonly. It is this kind of we're better than you attitude that must notbe allowed to drive a wedge between the British Brothers and Sisters.Does this man think that this was always the case? We in Ulster areperhaps the biggest offenders, through no fault of our own, of theGovernment/population dependency ratio. This is hopefully beingaddressed by our lacklustre, waring politician's. To the English thatsay what has this got to do with our bountiful Country? I say read yourhistory books.I do not believe that any of our country's could go italone, so we need to do all we can to nurture our British Identity,whilst preserving our own indigenous, British, differences.DIVIDED WEFALL!

"Why has Arthur Kemp pulled his page?"Who knows? It was crap anyway. Perhaps the BNP could see that anyone who went there would be able to see what a racist bastard Kemp (and thus the party he associates with) actually is!

good accurate article. griffin is loosing a lot of people fast and this is now the time of year where the most membership is now renewable.there used to be big branches but they seem to be falling apart and anyone who dares to leave is simply called a mole once they have left.2/3 years i think they were big and growing but a lot of their hardcore supporters have watched its demise recently and have simply got fed up with dickheads in control,take the monthly members bulletin every bit you read is wanted £££. people have caught wind and are fed up of being conned,it is as simple as that

The fact that Blake supported the contest for the Leadership, Chris Jackson and the fact that he is now identified as a ringleader of a group of political neophytes and deluded saps with only personal ambition and a record of personal failure in their BNP roles who have done more harm to the BNP than the UAF could ever have done means he is a traitor and should be expelled unless he has an ounce of decency and honourably resigns.